Living in LaLaLand

I haven’t made it yet to see the film LaLaLand, have you been? From the age of about 7 or 8 I dreamed of becoming an actor. I used to act out big dramatic, Kramer vs Kramer-style scenes in my bedroom (always involved lots of crying) and then practice my Oscar acceptance speech. For a long time, it looked like going to LaLaLand would be a dream come true for me, and it was something that I pursued for a good while.When I made the move into becoming a therapist in my early thirties, it looked like I’d left my dreams of LaLaLand behind. For the past few days, I’ve been listening to Keith Blevens and Valda Monroe talking about how we suffer when we believe in things that are not true and I got struck by an insight.I realised that I did indeed make it to LaLaLand, in fact, I’ve been living there for a REALLY long time, most of my life in fact!!

Every single time that I’ve believed that my feelings have been coming from my circumstances, I’ve been in LaLaLand.Every time that I believed that someone else has MADE me feel happy/sad/angry/jealous/something, every time I thought I NEEDED a drink to relax or have a good time, every time I believed any thought telling me I wasn’t good enough, every time I thought my feelings were telling me about my life, or predicting my future life, I was working from something as fundamentally untrue as the earth being flat.So, I did make my dream come true! Every day, over and over. The power of Thought is so compelling, so very powerful, that we all go skipping off to LaLaLa on a regular basis. We all give Oscar-worthy performances every time we act from that place of (innocent) misunderstanding, believing our thoughts to be real, so I hereby accept my Oscar and I hope you will accept yours too….Have a wonderful weekend xxxx